I was first introduced to the Acumen Fund in 2009 when I was looking to work internationally. It was recommended to me as a well-run non-profit that addressed the issues of poverty using a market-driven approach. While it has been on my radar since then, the Toronto Chapter’s “Dignity In Focus” event was the first time I formally interacted with the organization. On December 1, Toronto + Acumen partnered with Nuru Project to host a photo auction fundraiser. Judging from the packed room, engaged crowd, and beautiful pictures, I’d say that the event was a success.

The evening’s focus was dignity, which is one of Acumen Fund’s core tenets. While dignity is a word I am intuitively drawn to, this event got me thinking about what it means to me. When I ask myself “What is dignity”, the first word that surfaces is human. To me, by virtue of our humanity, we are entitled to dignity. No matter who you are and where you live. The photos around the room at the Acumen event beautifully represented this. They showed the different facets of being human – food, water, family, community, sharing, caring, spirituality and achievement.

One particular picture stuck with me that night. It was of two little South African girls, where the older sister is feeding the younger one. Through this picture, you can feel the warmth of the bond between the girls. It reminded me of the special moments I’ve shared with my family. It also reminded me of my younger brother when he was little and how excited I was to be my mom’s shadow in caring for him. To me, that picture was really about the basics – family, food, and caring for our loved ones.

But what if you didn’t have the basics? What if there were no opportunities in your town and you had to move days away from your family to earn an income? What if you did not make enough money at the market on a particular day, and you couldn’t buy all the food you needed? What if your child had malaria, and the nearest clinic was days away by public transportation? These are some people’s realities, and choices they must make. They’re not easy or necessarily fair.

Organizations like Acumen Fund seek solutions to these challenges. They help create job opportunities close to home by supporting local entrepreneurs. They help counter food insecurity by promoting a stable income.  They help provide malaria treatments by supporting businesses that provide access to essential services.

I worked at a microfinance institution in Ghana for four months last year. In the course of my work, I interviewed over 160 borrowers. When I asked borrowers how they used the profits from their businesses, they often answered, with grinning and proud faces, “I pay for my children’s school”. While I recognize that microfinance has its limitations, I love how the micro-loans empowered the borrowers. Giving them access to financial services satisfied their needs to take care of their families. One of my takeaways from the experience was the value that businesses can play in poverty alleviation. Earning income in a dignified way makes a significant difference to people’s confidence and happiness.

Another one of my takeaways was that microfinance is just one service in the spectrum of poverty alleviation activities. You also need mid-market enterprises and macro-economic policies. For example, if tomato sellers in a rural Ghanaian village only used their loans to buy tomatoes, there is a cap to how much their loans could increase in each loan cycle. At one point, the tomato supply in the village will outstrip demand and some tomato sellers will default on their loans. What if the reason supply outstripped demand was because the villagers did not have enough disposable income to purchase all the tomatoes they wanted?

Let’s say that an entrepreneur funded by the Acumen Fund decided to open a malaria net factory in the region and provided jobs to these villagers. Increasing their disposable income, the villagers would now be able to purchase all the tomatoes that they want. This factory not only benefits the factory employees, but also the tomato sellers receiving micro-loans. Taking the example one step further, what if the local government saw the success of these interventions and decided to change its policies to ensure replication of the model in other regions?

This simple example illustrates how micro-businesses, mid-market enterprises, and macro-economic policy can interplay to positively impact people’s lives. Acumen and its patient capital model play somewhere in the middle of the social capital spectrum. The organization defines patient capital as $300,000-$2,500,000 in equity or debt financing given to early-stage enterprises providing low-income consumers with access to health care, water, housing, alternative energy, or agricultural inputs. Essentially, the basics. And that’s what I love about Acumen’s work. It’s about the basics that make us human.

Note: Toronto for Acumen has partnered with SocialFinance.ca to produce a series of posts following on from the Dignity in Focus photo fundraiser held earlier this month. This series introduces a host of new faces to social finance, placing their thoughts about Dignity in Focus in the context of impact investing.   

Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/to4acumen/6429228507/

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